Rotating Cylinders

Cylinder music box, made between 1810 and 1900.
The cylinder is rotated by clockwork/spring motor.
Tiny steel pins on the surface trigger parts of a steel "comb", that makes the sound.
(Picture taken from ebay.)

Sequencer of a washing machine, circa 1970, pre-microcontroller era.
The cylinder is rotated by an electric motor.
The shape of the surface is used to open/close switches,
to control pumps/motors, solenoid valves, and an electric heater.
There are rumors, that such things could be still in production.

Click here for a bigger picture.

Noticed something ?

It's all about triggering a given "thing" at a predetermined time from start.
Both machines use a slowly rotating cylinder, with a "program" of what
to do at which moment encoded at the surface.

Could we stick both cylinders onto one rotating axis ?
The idea of building a music playing washing machine (or a laundry
washing music box) looks weird/peculiar at first thought...
but not as much as building your own processor at home from scrap.

When taking a close look at the washing machine sequencer, we can
imagine that there was a button at one end of the axis, to manually
select parts of the "program".
To prevent the laundry from being washed and washed again, there was
a switch to turn of the motor, when the cylinder reached (for instance)
350 degrees of rotation.
To start again, the sequencer had to be manually reset (for instance)
10 degrees ahead to zero.

[HOME] [UP]/ [BACK] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [NEXT]